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Microsoft 365 and Office | Development | Microsoft 365 App Publishing
The process of submitting and distributing custom apps across Microsoft 365 platforms, including Outlook, Teams, and the Microsoft 365 app store.
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Hi Splines
Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A Forum. I truly appreciate you taking the time to share such a detailed explanation of your experience and for contributing a free, open‑source Office Add‑in to the community.
To clarify, publishing an Office Add‑in to the Microsoft Office Add‑ins marketplace requires enrollment in Partner Center under the Microsoft 365 and Copilot program. At present, this program is designed for organizations and requires signing in with a work or school (Microsoft Entra ID) account, even if the solution itself is free, open‑source, and does not involve monetization. Unfortunately, personal Microsoft accounts (such as Outlook.com, Hotmail, or Live.com) are not supported for Marketplace publisher enrollment.
Partner Center enrollment may also request business and payment information, even for free solutions. While no charges are required to publish a free add‑in, the enrollment workflow currently expects this information and does not provide a streamlined path specifically for individual or open‑source developers.
If the enrollment process is interrupted before completion (for example, prior to finishing account verification), the account may remain in a partially provisioned state. This can result in errors such as “Access restricted” or “Something did not work”, which typically require intervention from Partner Center support to resolve.
The issue you mentioned where a Workspace is required in order to submit feedback or support requests is a known limitation and has been reported by other users as well. At this time, there is no publicly documented workaround available.
Given these constraints, the only supported option currently available is to complete Partner Center enrollment using a work or school account, such as a tenant created specifically for development or open‑source publishing purposes. At this time, there is regrettably no alternative publishing path for individual developers using personal Microsoft accounts, even for free and open‑source Office Add‑ins.
That said, your feedback regarding the barriers this creates for independent and open‑source contributors is completely valid. Raising this concern through official feedback channels, such as the Feedback Hub item you referenced, is the best way to ensure it reaches the appropriate product teams responsible for Partner Center and Office Add‑in publishing.
Thank you again for your thoughtful feedback and for contributing to the Office ecosystem. Your comments help highlight areas where the developer experience can be improved, particularly for community‑driven projects.
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